Clearly, the Bentons are doing something right. Forty years and three generations of Paul Roman Bentons have taken a dairy delivery business, founded on Procter Street in Port Arthur in 1969, and grown B&B Ice and Water, the largest independent distributor of Reddy Ice in the nation, and more recently, a water provider.
Roman, the third Paul Roman, son of “Paul” Roman, Jr., and father of Paul Roman, IV, age 5, met at the sales and marketing offices of the multi-facility operation at 5649 Gulfway Drive in Groves, dressed in his work clothes – shorts and pullover – to methodically talk about what’s most important at B&B – safety.
Before a question could be asked about the history of the company, Roman launched into the safety procedures B&B follows to ensure workers at industrial sites not only drink enough water but bacteria free water that is odorless and tasteless.
Providing water to industrial sites is a fairly new service for B&B and one might say Roman is excited about it. Each Paul Roman seems to have expanded the family owned and operated business to some extent appreciating year-after-year growth and the venture into water service is Roman’s project.
Reluctantly, Roman offers some information about the founding of his family’s business only with the promise that safety can also be woven in throughout the story.
First there was Paul Roman Benton who bought Townsend Dairy and began delivering products to mid-county residents. His son, “Paul” Roman Benton, Jr., joined forces with his dad, and they began manufacturing bagged ice in the 70s. By the time Paul, who was a state football player for Port Neches Groves High School, was a senior in high school, he was essentially running B&B. For a decade or so the company delivered both dairy and ice to schools, residents and local businesses “I think by the early 80s the dairy business got too competitive but the ice business continued to grow at a nice rate,” said Roman. “In 1985 Dad opened up a Reddy Ice distributorship in Florida, and we moved there. I was 8.”
It was at that time in the 80s that B&B in Mid-County stopped manufacturing ice and began distributing it for Reddy Ice. The company’s founder, Paul Roman, Sr., continued operating the Mid-County distributorship while Paul Roman, Jr. established the Tampa, Florida location where he still resides and manages that business.
Paul Roman, III, graduated from high school in Florida, attended classes at Florida State University and then went to work for Mutual of Omaha selling insurance. “Off and on I always thought about working in the family business,” said Roman. “Then when I went a couple of weeks without getting a commission check, I knew I wanted to go that route.”
Roman came on board with B&B in 1998. His grandfather had passed away two years previously and his father was managing both the Southeast Texas and Tampa businesses from Florida. The ice distributorship in the area had steadily expanded to cover Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana, east of Lake Charles to Kirbyville and Crystal Beach.
Satisfied that he has shared the history of the company, Roman again brings up the topic on the forefront of his mind – safety. “Throughout the history of our company it’s been our goal to try and bundle safety, convenience and cost savings,” says Roman. “That’s why on the two biggest projects in this area - Total and Motiva – every sip of water was from us.” Water? Thought B&B was in the ice business? Similarly to how the previous generation expanded services to include ice, Roman’s generation has remained flexible and vigilant in the marketplace realizing a need for water.
“In business, you’re only one event away from selling everything you have and one event away from someone doing it better,” said Roman. “There was an event in Arizona in 2002 that changed our business forever and put us in the water business.” That year there was an outbreak of a Norwalk-like virus at the Thunderbirds Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz. A total of 84 cases were connected to water jugs used at the course, resulting in the death of one teenage golfer. As a result more strident OSHA regulations were implemented requiring sanitization of water coolers in public locations like golf courses as well as businesses. B&B Ice, under Roman’s leadership, immediately saw the need to become B&B Ice and Water. Already established delivering ice to restaurants, grocery and convenience stores and petrochemical plants, B&B merely expanded its offering to include safe drinking water in spigot containers.
Now finally, Roman is allowed to talk about what he has wanted to talk about the entire interview. How B&B Ice and Water ensures safe drinking water to its customers including Valero, Chevron Philips, Kellogg Brown and Root, EnGlobal, Mason Construction, to name a few. “We have the whole process on our website,” said Roman. “We have an entire assembly line to wash and sterilize the water coolers every day, and we use a filtration system to make sure that the water is bacteria free.”
Roman walks through the day-to-day process. Around 4:30 a.m. crews meet to load water and ice for delivery. Water, of bottled water quality, and ice is put in yellow and red Igloo coolers and loaded on trailers. All deliveries are completed between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Crews return with coolers from the previous day and prepare for the next day’s water and ice delivery. They run the water cans through a Jackson 66-inch conveyor washer with 180 degree sanitizing rinse certified by the NSF guaranteed to kill bacteria. They then process water through a double filter to ensure it is bacteria free using a commercial 24- inch carbon filter for taste and a high intensity ultraviolet water purifier to kill bacteria.
Odorless and tasteless water is nearly as critical as bacteria-free water because workers won’t drink foul water, which can lead to another health issue – heat illnesses. “Because of our carbon filters no matter what type of fluctuations from the City, it doesn’t matter, we get a consistent taste-free water,” said Roman. “It could be technically bacteria-free but if the water has a bad taste, guys won’t drink it and it can become a serious health concern.”
According to OSHA every year thousands of workers become sick from exposure to heat and some die. Therefore, B&B Ice and Water offers seven-day a week service with multiple cooler sizes and flexible ordering. The have no minimum order and don’t require long-term contracts. The company’s goal is simply to ensure sufficient coolers on site to keep workers hydrated.
Another health concern occurs when businesses try to provide water coolers independently. B&B’s Sales and Marketing Manager Eric Wright says they’ve seen all kinds of company efforts to provide employees with water but most are either unsafe or expensive or both. “We’ve seen buckets of water just sitting out in the open,” said Wright. “Some provide bottled water but that gets expensive and is not great for the environment. We not only remove the liability but offer a safer more economical alternative.”
B&B Ice and Water implements the same common-sense services to their water services as they have in their ice distribution for the past 40 years, daily timely delivery and cooler/freezer maintenance. Water services are offered at one flat rate per every cooler. In addition B&B owns, maintains and stores the coolers, as well as delivers and lifts the 80-pound water jugs; they have water tested on a regular basis by a third party.
Just as the previous generation of Bentons saw the ice business exceed the dairy business a few decades ago, this generation of Bentons has watched the water business surpass the ice business. “We’ve done nothing but grow year after year,” said Roman. “My first year here – 13 or 14 years ago - $750,000 in annual sales; this year sales are $6 million.”
What will the next generation of Paul Roman’s appreciate? Steam? Dry ice? The current regime says “fuel.” “We have contracts now with Sprint and Verizon to provide generator fuel for diesel generators,” said Roman. “We serve as an emergency response company during hurricanes, ice storms, blizzards, tornadoes, basically using our distribution system and being in the right place at the right time.”
The emergency response operation is primarily a venture of the Florida branch of B&B. Roman is content to grow the ice and water business right here in Southeast Texas. Benton success is as clear as B&B’s ice and water; Roman thinks the future is transparent, too. “Our water business is just beginning to catch on,” said Roman. “The future of B&B is expanding the water business and making sure it’s accepted widely.”
Contact B&B Ice and Water at 409-727-5714 or visit them on the web at www.bnbice.com. Be sure and note the tab on “safety.”
